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New Mexico Salmonella Outbreak Sickens People in Six Counties

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

The New Mexico Department of Health is investigating a cluster of 19 Salmonella cases. Several victims of the outbreak have been hospitalized due to severe symptoms. No one has died.

Health officials are interviewing patients to determine the source(s) of the Salmonella infections. 

People in six counties in New Mexico have confirmed cases of Salmonella:

• McKinley
• San Juan
• Dona Ana
• Curry
• Socorro
• Bernalillo

This suggests the source of the outbreak was not one restaurant or other eating establishment and that the source was most likely a food product. Recent Salmonella outbreaks have been associated with frozen chicken meals, frozen pot pies, cantaloupe and Malt-O-Meal cereal.

“We have alerted physicians and hospitals around the state to be on the lookout for people presenting with fever and diarrhea and to test those people for Salmonella,” said Dr. Mike Landen, deputy state epidemiologist with the Department of Health.

We applaud the New Mexico Department of Health for encouraging medical professionals to test for Salmonella. Our experience is that doctors often do not test patients with symptoms of food poisoning to determine the pathogen responsible for the illness.  Any patient who is diagnosed with symptoms of food poisoning should press their physician for further testing, especially when there is serious illness.

Contact us (1-888-377-8900 (toll-free)) if you have questions, including how to report a case of salmonellosis (Salmonella infection) to a health department, an important step in determining the source of the illness. We are a national law firm.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on May 24, 2008 (boomark / email).